DALLAS — "We're all here," Yves Carcelle of Louis Vuitton said Thursday night, waving to a fellow European luxury goods executive as he stood at the 20-yard line of the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. Carcelle was one of 800 guests mingling on the football field's thick green grass to kick off Neiman Marcus' big, Texas-style, two-day celebration of its centenary.

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And, like most of the guests, he faced a style quandary: to do the Western thing whole hog or play it safe. In his case, the Vuitton head, who had flown in from Paris that morning with his wife, Rebecca, opted for all-black à la Johnny Cash, but sans cowboy boots and hat. "No, not me," he said, showing off his black suede boots.

It was a sentiment echoed by William McComb. "I am so not Western," the Liz Claiborne chief executive officer said, then added, "OK, at least I'm in jeans — Lucky Brand." Otherwise, he was clad in a black silk moire jacket by Juicy Couture — which drew praise from at least one other cowboy in attendance — and a white T-shirt.

Valentino's Graziano de Boni also mixed it up, combining jeans and an embroidered black shirt with a neckerchief and tan boots — "Not cowboy, but Valentino," he said, showing them off. "And the shirt is Valentino, too, and I thought it would be interesting because it's see-through. Very cowboy," he joked.

Most guests went de Boni's route, resulting in a dress style that Neiman's fashion director, Ken Downing, dubbed "Tex Mix" — but only after he insisted he didn't really care what the women were wearing; he was more focused on what he was going to don. In the end, he exhibited the style de mode, mixing vintage red-and-white cowboy boots with a white jacket and cotton pants. But the cowboy boots weren't just any cowboy boots. "They're vintage Tom Ford; he made them for me after I fell in love with them on the runway," Downing said.